The invention relates to a flexible device for use with an orthodontic appliance comprising a bracket which is attached to a patient's tooth and has projections, and has an archwire slot formed therein.
In the art of orthodontics, the use of various forms of tension-applying devices are known for properly locating an archwire in a bracket or brackets, and also for repositioning teeth towards or away from each other.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,767,469, which issued to Gladstone on Oct. 29, 1963, has an archwire lock in the form of an endless loop of resilient material which is harmless to human tissue and resistant to mouth secretions. This lock of flexible material is used in the Gladstone reference in connection with an orthodontic bracket of the wing type, that is with a bracket having hook-shaped projections in which an archwire slot is formed. In use the flexible loop is placed over the wings of the bracket and in this manner the archwire is urged into, and held in place in, the slot.
Today flexible loops of this kind made of elastomeric material are on the market. As shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,530,583 issued to Klein et al on Sept. 27, 1970, such elastomeric loops or o-rings can be made as individual modules or as a chain of a plurality of such modules, in which latter case the flexible links between the modules when placed on the brackets serve to apply a tension between adjacent brackets and hence to the teeth to which the brackets are attached, to pull these teeth toward one another.